I came across this short piece on one of my favourite photographers: Josef Sudek on the great Art of Photography website.

I love Sudek’s photographs, particularly those that can be characterized as neo-romantic. Maybe this is not so surprising as I’m also very fond of Gustav Mahler and Richard Strauss music. I know that it’s not popular to like ‘pictorialist’ photographs nowadays, but I find that I do. I find Sudek’s photographs to be particularly atmospheric, especially those of the interior of St. Vitus Cathedral in Prague such as the example below:

Sudek: St. Vitus Cathedral Under Construction. Via “From My Window”: The Late Work of André Kertész and Josef Sudek

I’m also impressed by his series of panoramic photographs.

Charles Bridge, Prague. Josef Sudek via ‘What is a Film Camera’

Finally apart from the qaulity of his work I find his personal story inspiring. He lost an arm in World War I, but this didn’t stop him from taking photographs, and those days we’re not taking about cameras of the size we mostly use today. We’re talking about something much, much larger (see below). Talk about refusing to let a disability get you down.

Josef Sudek with his large format camera. Via “From My Window”: The Late Work of André Kertész and Josef Sudek

A number of the images in this post are linked to a very interesting article: “From My Window”: The Late Work of André Kertész and Josef Sudek.